


Their Garden

by TheNatureKing



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-11 14:58:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15974699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNatureKing/pseuds/TheNatureKing
Summary: Kim Jongin, despite his deteriorating immune system, leaves the safety of his home to visit with his cute gardener.





	Their Garden

**Author's Note:**

> inspired off one of my prompts :) sorry lol

Ten minutes.

Jongin overextended the amount of time his doctor allowed him to be outside by ten minutes.

He hadn't even realized he had been out there that long until he felt the familiar tickle of a terrible cough in his chest.

He barely made it back inside before he broke out into a coughing fit.

He hoped he closed the door fast enough.

He didn't want him to ever see him like this.

He liked the way things were now.

He liked how he was looked at and spoken to like anybody else would have been.

He liked feeling normal again.

And smiling again. And laughing again. And teasing again.

He liked the way things they were now.

…

…

… 

Jongin always found the man tending to his garden around noontime when the sun's rays had the highest chance of piercing through the dark smog that left the sky perpetually hidden.

Jongin's interest in his new gardener didn't take root until one afternoon where he had caught a glimpse of the man's face while he changed his mask. At first, the sight of his bare face threw him; he felt like a peeping-tom witnessing something private but unable to look away. He knew it was wrong to stare since revealing one's face was considered to be an act of intimacy, but he was mesmerized.

By chance or perhaps it was his unfortunate luck that the gardener would spot him peeking out his kitchen window, and instead of getting embarrassed or offending and scrambling to cover himself back up, he simply smiled and waved.

Yup, Jongin was sold at that. He had no choice but to find an excuse to hear what beautiful sound a beautiful man like him made when he talked.

His first excuse was, "Thirsty?"

The gardener had eyed him strangely. Lemonade on a day where even the sun hadn't managed to make its presence known? Super strange. But still, who was he to turn down a surprise offer from his employer.

"Thanks."

Jongin almost dropped the cup trying to hand it over to him. The deepness had caught him off guard. The richness. The-

The gardener pulled down his mask again and Jongin had the epiphany that he was indeed a genius.

Jongin was enamored by the man, fascinated by every detail of him while he drained the entire beverage in one-go. His plump lips, the bob of his Adam's apple, his, now, wet, plump lips, his tongue flicking across his wet, plump lips.

"Are you okay?"

Jongin jumped. "Yes! I am! I... have to go!"

Once inside, he beat himself up for the rest of the day for chickening out. "Next time will be better," he convinced himself.

And somehow, it was.

Kind of.

"Hungry?"

The gardener eyed him again, although this time, the look in his eyes told Jongin something differently.

They shared one cookie together before Jongin's watch had begun to beep. He left the gardener with an entire canister of homemade cookies and an inkling of curiosity.

"Hey, what happened to you yesterday? Were you okay?"

Jongin was startled by the question. He had opened his kitchen window to air out the gross-smelling incense his doctor had prescribed him when his gardener had popped up, hands on the window seal just barely allowing the top of his head to show.

"I, um, had... the runs."

Jongin cringed saying it but his gardener nodded understandably.

"Ah... don't suppose I get a snack today, huh?"

Jongin remembered the overwhelming sense of guilt and panic that washed over him at that moment, and he also remembered the wonderful sound that was his gardener's hearty laugh.

"I was just joking, Mr. Kim. Just wanted to say 'hi'," his gardener said.

Jongin frowned. "You wanted to say 'hi' to me?"

His gardener hummed.

"What's your name?" Jongin asked. He almost wanted to take it back, but his gardener answered before he could really doubt himself.

"Kyungsoo, Mr. Kim."

"Kyungsoo..." Jongin let it sit on his tongue for a second. "Kyungsoo?"

Kyungsoo raised his brows.

"Call me Jongin, not Mr. Kim. We're friends, now."

Jongin knew his voice was a bit shaky, but hearing Kyungsoo's Alright, Jongin, restored his confidence.

"I have to go now, Jongin, but see you tomorrow?"

"Of course. Bye, Kyungsoo."

Truth be told, Jongin said his name over and over and over all throughout the night. He could never get tired of having that name in his mouth.

After learning Kyungsoo's name, Jongin doesn't have to rely on excuses to visit with his gardener, being friends and all.

Jongin talked to Kyungsoo nearly every day. Jongin had even started inviting inside, and after a while, they stopped wearing their masks with each other.

Jongin liked it that way. Even if Kyungsoo's smile could still be seen in his eyes with his mask on, Jongin preferred the real thing.

"I'm not sure why, Jongin, but your health is deteriorating faster than we anticipated."

Jongin knew he should have fired his doctor because he hadn't been giving any good news since Jongin hired him.

"'You're not sure? What do I pay you for then?"

"I mean, the only explanation for these results would be if you spent a quite a bit of time breathing in excessive amounts of outside air, but that wouldn't make any sense since you rarely leave your house.”

No matter what happened, Jongin would never take back all the time he spent with Kyungsoo. He would never blame or let anyone else blame Kyungsoo for what happened to himself. Kyungsoo was worth it. Getting to know Kyungsoo over the last few months and falling in love with every detail he upturned was worth what was to come.

Jongin stopped going outside more. He told himself it was because the seasons were changing and he was simply too cold, but the seasons barely affected the temperature by any more than a few degrees. He told Kyungsoo that it was better inside.

Of course, Kyungsoo couldn't just abandon his duties as his gardener, so the amount of time they spent together decreased.

It didn't seem to impact the overall well-being of their relationship, though. Kyungsoo still sat and had tea with him. He still teased and laughed with him. They still talked.

"Are you okay, Jongin? You've had this sad look in your eyes the last couple of days."

It was amazing how wearing masks for most of your life made it so your eyes were the most expressive, and, at the same time, most vulnerable part of your body.

"I'm living."

Kyungsoo began to hear the phrase differently as time went on.

Ten minutes.

Ten minutes outside over his designated time limit were all it took for the perfect web of lies Jongin had spun for months to fall apart.

Kyungsoo heard Jongin's first major coughing fit because the kitchen window had been open.

"Are you okay?" Kyungsoo went to ask, but he caught Jongin downing a bottle of pills. Over the next few days and weeks, his eyes had gone back to day one. He became more observant.

"You are not okay."

Kyungsoo confronted him over one of their weekend dinner nights. The color of Jongin's complexion had started to go like the birds in their garden. Winter was coming.

Jongin hadn't responded. Actually, the universe made him respond. He broke out into another one of his coughing fits. As of late, he hadn't even needed to go outside to cause the reaction. He got coughs all throughout the day at random intervals. He had fired his doctor at his latest appointment.

"What's wrong with you, Jongin?"

There it was. Jongin huffed. There was that tone he had dreaded ever hearing from Kyungsoo. There were those eyes that pitied him, like all the others.

"Jongin, please, you can't shut me out like this. Not after all this time."

Jongin snorts. "Time doesn't mean anything for a guy like me. Mine is limited, anyway."

"No, Jongin, don't say that. What do you mean it's limited?"

Jongin let his coughs take over. Dinner got cold.

Kyungsoo stopped coming inside.

He remained in the garden. Came around noon, finished his work, and left.

Jongin wanted to say they still had tea. He wanted to say they still teased and laughed with each other. He wanted to say that they still talked, that nothing between them had changed.

But he couldn't.

In between all the coughing he was doing nowadays, he could barely complete a sentence without interruption.

Moving about grew more difficult for him so Jongin couldn't peek outside his kitchen window as often. He relied a lot on the hired help his doctor had recommended him when he called and explained how much worse he had gotten. Jongin's lungs felt like they were ripping each other apart. His throw was raw. His skin lacked color. And he was constantly cold to the touch. His doctor finally gave him good news after hearing all of that.

"Won't be suffering too much longer now, Jongin."

It was after midnight when Jongin saw it for the first time--the light. It appeared to him during his routinely coughing spree, except this time there was a lot of blood involved. Jongin cried on his knees. He prayed to every god that existed and begged for mercy.

Kyungsoo woke up feeling a strange weight on his chest, like something was just pushing down, down, down on his lungs. When he arrived at the garden, just before noon, he found Jongin waiting for him.

Rare for this time of the year, the sun's rays touched the earth and colored it with life. The only exception was Jongin. He sat on his fountain with a cup of lemonade, in the shadow of the angel statue that decorated it.

"Have long have you been out here, Jongin?"

Jongin inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly.

"Not as long as I wanted to be."

Kyungsoo sighed.

"You should go inside, Jongin. You can't be out here."

"I know, I know. I won't be long. Won't be here much longer, I promise. Just listen to me, okay?"

Kyungsoo joined him on the fountain. "What do you want to say? I have work to do."

Jongin smiled softly. "That's what I liked about you. Such a hard worker. I'm glad I got brought that lemonade out here that day--" he waved the cup in his hand around, "--and got to know a person like you. You inspired me to push myself and I did. I'll forever be thankful to you for that."

"Jongin, what are you--"

A cold wind blew through the garden. The clouds started shifting. The sun was waving goodbye.

"Thank you for being my friend, Kyungsoo. I lo--"

A stronger wind blew, and Jongin's cup spilled.

"Whew, I'm getting cold. I think I'm going to go back inside."

Jongin picked up the cup. "There's some lemonade inside if you want any," Jongin said before walking away.

Kyungsoo watched him with a frown.

Tending to the garden was a blur for Kyungsoo. He couldn't remember if he watered the flowers yet or not, if he trimmed this part of the bush yet or not, or if he'd already swept that area. It was such a peculiar feeling. Kyungsoo figured it was because he hadn't had any type of hydration that morning. That lemonade offer was starting to sound nice right about now.

The house was quiet when Kyungsoo entered.

"Jongin?" he called.

No response.

He was probably in the bathroom. Oh well, Kyungsoo thought, he definitely knew the kitchen well enough to be able to make his own glass. He opened the fridge and peered inside.

"Where is it?" Kyungsoo mumbled. He closed the fridge and then opened it again. Still, nothing. "Where did he put the lemonade?"

Kyungsoo looked around the kitchen and saw nothing. Everything was spick and span, not a dish out of place. In fact, the pitcher that Kyungsoo used for his lemonade was still in the dish rack. That was strange.

"Hey, Jongin! Where's the lemonade?"

Kyungsoo moved by the stairs and called for Jongin once again. Still, no response.

Worried that he might be trying to hide his coughs from him, Kyungsoo started up the stairs.

"Jongin, buddy? Hey, I'm coming up. Is everything alright?"

Kyungsoo checked the bathroom. It was empty. He then returned to the hallway and stopped just right outside of Jongin's room. He had never been in here before.

He knocked.

"Jongin? You okay?"

...

"Jongin?"

...

Kyungsoo grabbed the door handle and twisted.

"Jongin? I'm coming in."

...

Kyungsoo pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Jongin's room was nothing more than a dresser, a nightstand, and a big bed, and in that bed lied Jongin.

"Oh, you were sleep. Sorry."

Kyungsoo nearly backed out of the room when something inside of him went wait.

Kyungsoo walked closer to the bed where Jongin was. On the floor lay dozens of bloodied tissues and towels. Kyungsoo felt sick.

"J-Jongin?"

Tears gathered in Kyungsoo's eyes as he noticed that Jongin hadn't moved. His chest hadn't moved once. His chest wasn't moving. Jongin wasn't sleeping, he was--

Kyungsoo dropped to his knees. "Oh God, no. Jongin, no, this can't be-- please, no, Jongin, come on, man. Come on, buddy, please, Jongin, don't do this. You can't do this right now. You can't leave me like this."

Kyungsoo held his hand as he cried.

"There was still so much I wanted to do with you. So many more things I wanted to say. Please, Jongin, oh, God, no, no, please, I'm sorry. I wasn't ready. I'm so sorry for not being there these last few weeks, Jongin, oh, God, I'm so sorry. You were suffering all alone because I left you, oh God, Jongin, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry..."

...

...

...

Kyungsoo stopped coming to the garden.

Until the funeral.

Jongin had a lot of family and friends that showed up, people Kyungsoo had never heard Jongin talk about once, but they were all there. They shared stories, passed condolences, buried his body.

Kyungsoo, despite having known Jongin the most during his final weeks, felt the most estranged at the funeral. Just like he hadn't known anyone there, they hadn't known of him, either.

After the burial, Kyungsoo had planned to leave, but a conversation between Jongin's doctor and his siblings had caught his ear.

"He passed away in his sleep," the doctor told them, and Kyungsoo was, at first, enraged that the man could lie like that just to save face and give them a piece of mind. But then, Jongin's help, the same individual who had discovered Kyungsoo bawling, had said something that changed his mind.

Apparently, Jongin had been bedridden the last few days leading up to his pass. There was no way he could have gotten up and made it to the garden.

To say the least, Kyungsoo was absolutely speechless. How could he have been talking to Jongin the day of his--

Unless...

...

...

...

Kyungsoo returned to their garden every day at noon. Even when there were hardly any chores that needed completed, he still returned. Some days, when the sun managed to peak through its own kitchen window of clouds and touch the garden with its life, Kyungsoo was sure he could feel Jongin's presence. And he always made sure to smile and wave.

**Author's Note:**

> :) 
> 
> hi. how are you?
> 
> this was something i sprint-wrote last night so it's not the most organized or structured. there's actually a lot of things i'm not necessarily satisfied with, but i'll save my depreciation because i AM content with the fact that i was able to wrap this up. anyway, i would love to take this idea and handle it another way sometime in the future!


End file.
